The Spirit Of Maclay Mansion
by The Raider
Summary: Major AU. Willow Rosenberg is an adventurous girl living in a small town where nothing ever happens. She dreams of living out adventures like those she reads about in her books. On the eve of her birthday, she finds a deserted Mansion in the woods and finds herself set upon a path that she could never have dreamed of, one that could very well lead her to the love of her life.
1. Prologue

**Alrighty. This is gonna be my first really big AU Willow/Tara fic, so I hope you guys enjoy it, and that I don't screw up the characters too bad :P Enjoy! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. They belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.**

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**Prologue**

_Running. That's all she could even focus on. Pumping her legs for as much speed as she could force her body to give, the girl ran through the otherwise emptied hallways. Past broken windows, holes in floors, rotting boards and furniture, and water drenched walls. Her eyes only focusing on what was in front of her and what lay behind her, she continued running, her heart threatening to explode inside her chest. Her hands grabbing the wall as she turned the corner, she stopped for only a moment, her lungs desperate for air. Hearing the angry voice and the footsteps accompanying them behind her, she once again set off, knowing that she was close to her escape. _

_The Mansion was seemingly an endless array of hallways and dead ends, but she knew them well. To live in such a place and not know exactly where everything was? It was foolish, and just plain stupid at that. The memory of how she and her mother had explored the various rooms of the large estate came flashing back for a brief moment before her current situation forced her mind back to the present._

_She could hear her father yelling out her name, the sound of heavy boots on the wooden floor accompanying it like a drum to march. The sound only serving to drive her to run faster and faster towards her goal, the teenager bounced off the wall as she came to a turn. Ignoring the slightly pained feeling in her bones, she rushed through the deserted hallway, and almost breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the staircase presenting itself to her. _

_As she ran down the stairs, she could see the door directly in front of her, with only mere feet separating the two of them from a long overdue meeting. Her tired body almost completely drained of its strength, she could only hear the sound of her heart beat pounding in her ears at an almost completely deafening volume. Her fingers had just barely wrapped around the door knob when she felt someone pulling her back into the home, the sound of a voice growling in her ear overwhelming her brain. _

_From the outside, not a single sound escaped the mansion, not even so much as a whisper…_


	2. Willow Rosenberg

**A/N: Sorry for this update taking so long. I kinda had writers block regarding it, but I'm back now :D I hope the plot isn't moving too fast. I kinda feel like it is. Hope you enjoy! :D  
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**Chapter 1**

As she closed the back cover of the book, Willow Rosenberg closed her green eyes , her mind still awash with the images her imagination had generated from the novel she had just finished. Turning to her left and setting the paperback book onto her nearly spotless night table, she sighed. It was the final night before school resumed after their Halloween break, and here she was, sitting inside on her bed, reading supernatural fiction with the air-conditioning keeping the late-summer heat at bay. From beyond the closed window of her room, she knew that there were numerous things going on in real life that she, in theory, would never have any interest in. Outside, in the real world, nothing made sense, and everything was beyond any certain sense of control. In here, surrounded by books and notebooks that she had scribbled out bits and pieces of her own tales, she had some of the necessary control that made her feel at ease. She could at least control what went on in here.

Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, the red-headed girl wondered what to do next. It was still very late into the evening, and even though she had hours upon hours to either write or start a new novel that lay in the large stack of her reading material ahead of her in the coming days, she didn't feel like sleeping. Her books were silent friends that never once spoke out against her or wished her ill-will. They had become part of her shelter that she rested under, the 'muse' that fueled her own efforts towards trying to write original works. And there they lay, awaiting the next time that she would pick them up and push the pages past her green eyes.

She couldn't count how many times she had picked up the books, let the pages slide by her eyes, and her imagination travel somewhere else besides the small town that, for the moment at least, entrapped her. More than anything, she simply wished that the torture that was High School would finally end so that she could go somewhere else and live a life that could be at least something vaguely like those in the books she read endlessly. It didn't matter what happened or where it happened, but simply being in this town made the entire world seem so far away. It was as if the outside world couldn't even penetrate the outer limits of the town in which she knew as her home.

Giving a small sigh, the red-headed teenager swung her legs over the side of her bed, and headed towards the window. Apart from reading and writing, her favorite pastime was looking out the window and star-gazing. As she looked out across the night sky, she smiled, able to make out some of the constellations that were at least visible. Considering how hard it was to even see stars within the city limits, she took great pride in knowing where said formations were. Not that anyone else seemed to care. Even Xander, her constant companion in anything she had ever done, didn't show any particular interest in it.

Then again, considering he was a teenage boy, she didn't really think he was thinking about anything other than sex.

Snorting somewhat at the thought, she smiled and turned away from the window. Giving a small yawn , she pulled the covers on her bed away as she laid back down, her green eyes closing as she turned out the light next to her, and tried to drift off to sleep.

* * *

As she stepped down off of the last stair and completed her journey into the kitchen, Willow sighed as she realized she was once again in an empty house. All the evidence she needed was the note left on the table next to a bowl of cereal and a glass filled with orange juice, the perspiration already beginning to show on the outside of the glass. Taking the still cold glass into her hand, she took a long sip of the liquid, and upon swallowing the drink, set the glass back into its place.

She hadn't realized that she had spent yet another night reading and writing away the night. She had done the same thing multiple times since the start of school, which wasn't an issue in the slightest, considering that she was, as always, completely on top of her school work. As such, it didn't pose any issue to her parents how long she stayed up. The only thing that could possible make that opinion change would be if she somehow started passing out in school or at home. Knowing her parents, they'd end up rushing her to the hospital. _Perks of having a nurse for a Mom, I guess…_

Taking hold of the note, her eyes gradually took in the words written for her. _Willow- Went to work. Have a fun last day of being fifteen! Love, Mom & Dad._

"Doesn't feel like a special day." She said, crumbling the note up and tossing it into the nearby garbage can. "Just another day of being Willow."

* * *

"Now, could anyone please tell me exactly what were the main causes for our entry into World War II?" Turning around in order to face the class, Mr. Caputo somewhat patiently waited for anyone's hand to fly up, signaling that they knew the answer. Seeing no-one's hand raised, apart from Willow's, he gave a small, mental sigh before gesturing towards the red-headed girl. "Ms. Rosenberg?"

"The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, and also the increasing targeting of our ships by the German U-Boats?" Willow answered, her tone having a questioning sound to it even though she knew the answer had no fault in it. Hearing a few annoyed groans from behind, she didn't so much as flinch when a crumbled up wad of paper impacted against the back of her head. The action accompanied by a few choice 'nicknames', if they even could be called that, she tried her best not to even show so much as a single reaction to them.

"Quiet down everyone." Opening his mouth again, Mr. Caputo was just about to continue with his line of thought when the bell signaling the end of class rang out through the hallways and classrooms. Immediately on their feet, the students gathered their things and rushed towards the door as fast as they could manage. Waiting a moment or two to ensure that she wouldn't be caught in the mad rush and scramble at the door, the red-headed teenager sighed vocally before returning to her feet. Throwing the strap for her book-bag over her shoulder, she shuffled out the door and into the madness that was the hallway at class change.

Reaching her locker in short fashion, her fingers quickly turned the locker combination until she was able to open it. Shoving her textbook into its place inside the well-organized locker, she retrieved the book she needed and shoved it under her arm before checking to make sure there wasn't anything else she needed.

"So, how's it shaking, Willster?" Rolling her eyes as she closed her locker, Willow couldn't help but grin as she turned and saw a familiar face awaiting her.

"Fine." Her green eyes looking down as she answered Xander's question, the red-head's eyebrow perked up as she caught the faintest glimpse of the grade on the paper her only friend was holding. "Another D? Xander…"

"Yeah, I know." Nodding as if he wasn't surprised in the slightest at the grade he had gotten, Xander stole a quick look at the paper before he began folding it and finally shoved it into his pocket. "You know Mrs. Trott. Always so generous with the failing grades she hands out. What would we ever do without her?"

"You might pass. You should have studied." Giggling slightly despite the seriousness of her tone, the red-head leaned back against her locker. "I keep telling you that if you study, you'll know the answers. Knowing answer equals good grades, remember?"

"Yep. And yet somehow, my mind just can't wrap my finger around what I should be doing when I should be studying."

"Do you have an excuse for everything?" Rolling her eyes playfully once more, Willow smiled brightly. She was glad that there was at least one person in the entire school that wasn't going to simply just throw wads of paper at her and make fun of her. As far back as she could remember, Xander had been her constant companion, and vice-versa. It didn't matter what, but the two had always been inseparable. It had all started with that moment of breaking a yellow crayon, but it had grown into a friendship that neither was sure they could begin to imagine living without.

"I do actually. And If I don't, I come up with some." Replying with his usual amount of sarcasm, the teenaged boy smiled down at the red-head as the two of them started towards their next class. "So how about you? Since you're gonna be the birthday girl tomorrow and all."

"I don't really feel any different…same old Willow." Replying with a shrug of her shoulders, Willow knew that there wasn't any exaggeration behind those words. It's like all the years that she had heard about how growing older was supposed to make you feel different in some sort of way had just gone out the window. She still felt the same as she had the day before, and the day before that, etc, etc. Was there something wrong with her? Was that why she wasn't feeling as happy as she was convinced she should be?

"That's just because you haven't had your birthday spanking yet." Rubbing his hands together in order to add to his joke, Xander fully expected the small hit on his arm that he received moments after the end of his sentence. "Nevermind. Guess we'll cancel the spanking."

"I don't think my Dad would appreciate the thought of you…Nevermind." Turning away as she felt a small amount of warmth flood her cheeks, Willow felt somewhat relieved as they reached the classroom. Granted, it was a room filled with people just waiting for the opportunity to make fun of her, but she felt a little safer knowing that Xander sat right next to her. In a way, he was her knight in shining armor.

God knows that there was nobody else who would do it.

* * *

"Mom? Dad?" As she walked through the door, Willow sighed upon realizing that she was once again alone in the house. There was no note, or nothing even remotely similar to an explanation as to why her parents weren't home yet. Setting her book bag down near the coffee table, she walked into the kitchen, and again found nothing that could explain her parent's absence. Grabbing a small soda out of the fridge so that the trip wouldn't have been an entire waste, the red-headed teenager mounted that stairs and ventured into her room. Flicking on the light-switch, she smiled slightly as she saw a wrapped present sitting atop her bed.

"At least somebody left me something." She said, setting the can of soda down on the nearby night-table before taking the wrapped gift into her hands. Carefully unwrapping the gift, for no reason in particular, she opened the box within and chuckled slightly. "Can always use new pens."

Dropping the now empty box and the wrapping paper in a nearby can, the red-head set her new gift atop her notebook before laying back onto her bed and closing her eyes. There were only a few more hours left now. After midnight tonight, she'd officially be sixteen. Goodbye to pre-teen 'struggles' and 'issues', the same kind of things that she had read in books countless times. Even though she knew it was stupid to even believe for a moment what she had read in books, she wondered if the things she had read would be anything like what she would experience in real life.

_Right. Because reading L.J. Smith books is totally going to prepare me for real life. _Sighing with a slightly sad tone, Willow rolled over onto her side and stared at the growing pile of books on her desk. How many years had she spent reading for countless hours upon hours? Was there even a number that high? Even she herself didn't know. There was a large bookshelves in one corner of the room that had been double-stacked to its very brim with paperbacks and hardcovers, each of them having been read multiple times.

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable in her own room, Willow had grabbed her coat without even realizing what she was doing, and was out the door in the same amount of time. Pulling her arms through the coat and zipping it up in order to protect her against the cold, she grabbed her key and walked out the back door, making sure that the house was locked and secure before she did. She had no idea where she was going, but she just wanted to be alone. With nothing but her thoughts to keep her company.

* * *

As she walked through the otherwise deserted forest, Willow pulled the collar of her jacket tighter around her neck. She often enjoyed going for walks in the woods, whenever she could manage to drag herself away from the current books she had buried herself in. Since it was Fall, the night air was chilly, causing her to shiver slightly even despite the warm coat she had wrapped around half of her frame. She couldn't explain why it was so cold, considering that during the day everything had been very warm and enjoyable.

Guess the night wanted her to be a little cold.

Pushing some of her red tresses behind her ear in order to hear everything around her a little bit better, she looked around at the darkening forest. It wasn't dark enough yet that it was pitch black, but it wouldn't be long before that would be happening. Night was already beginning to fall, and it commanded that soon it's reign would be uninterrupted and unchallenged.

She hadn't ever been in that part of the woods before, but then again, she hadn't ventured this far into the densely foliaged tree-line before either. Now that she was almost sixteen, she didn't see the point in holding back. She wanted to see something new, and here she was, taking in the sight of a new place. Granted, she had heard the local ghost stories about how Demons and Ghosts haunted every inch of the woods, preying on those foolish enough to venture into their domain. But that was just the drunks swapping stories, wasn't it?

That's all they were, just stories told to make sure children didn't venture into the woods alone at night. As much as she wanted them to be, Willow knew that the things in her L.J. Smith novels just weren't real. Couldn't be, never would be, however you described, it only led to her being disappointed. She wanted more than anything for Vampires, or Magick to be real, but they just weren't. They were something used to tell a story, something that only fictional characters and phony magicians with tricks up their sleeves could use. Those in real life were stuck with nothing.

Sighing at the thought, the teenage shook her head slightly, wanting to expel the sad and bitter thoughts from her mind entirely. She had come here for as a calm and relaxing way to clear her mind of the thoughts that had come to bother her during the day. She hadn't come here to depress herself with only more bad and unhappy thoughts. Looking around at the peaceful and silent wood, she felt a smile tug on the edges of her lips. The scenery around her looked like something out a painting, a beautiful one at that. If she had been a professional author instead of what she considered herself to be, a 'amateur', she would have been able to summon the words necessary to describe the scene.

Turning her head from where her attention had been focused on, she felt her feet stop dead in her tracks as her heart itself skipped a few beats. Her gaze lifting as she struggled to see the full height of the building in front of her, Willow's mind could only call forth one word to describe the sight. _Mansion._

As run down as the building was, it was still together enough that one would be able to tell what it was almost as soon as they set their eyes upon it. The angled roof, the number of floors, the sheer size of the building alone was a dead giveaway to its designation. It was a Mansion. A place that people with untold amounts of money lived and went about their day. That what was a Mansion was, wasn't it?

As her green eyes absorbed every detail of the ill-repaired Mansion lying dormant in front of her, Willow's mind sparked and went ablaze as she thought about what kind of history the place could have hidden inside its walls. _I mean, look at it…_With the way it was constructed, she could only guess and hint at the time period in which it must have been built. She was a little versed in the tell-tale signs of building designs, but not so much that she could instantly distinguish them apart.

Her legs having fallen into step as she traced the steps around the stone fence that surrounded the Mansion, the red-headed teenager found herself at what must have been, at one time or another, the foundation of a gate. Passing through it as if she were under some kind of trance, Willow could hear the leaves rustling as they broke underneath her foot and were left in a crunched and broken trail. Her green eyes remaining focused entirely on the structure towering above her, all she could do was think about what was inside her. It was as if something or someone was driving her towards the interior of the broken building, calling to come inside.

The door was still securely attached to its hinges, which surprised Willow, given the age she had estimated the building to be. Surely someone must have come before and taken anything left of value in the home. Wasn't that what happened all throughout history? Anything abandoned was seized by those braze enough to venture into the unknown to retrieve it? The Romans and Greeks had done it, as had the Ancient Egyptians.

And now…even Willow herself had to admit that she was curious to see what was inside. Wrapping her fingers around the door knob, she turned it and carefully pushed the door open. The hinges squeaking and grinding in their rusted state, the door nevertheless pushed away, revealing a dusty and dirty front hall. Peeking her head in to see what was inside, Willow's pupils widened as she saw that almost all of the furniture was still in place. The wood may have been rotted, the mirrors might have cracks in them or been shattered altogether, but they were still in their places, much like they would have been when the family had still lived there.

Taking the first step into the building, Willow made certain not to bump into anything, for fear of awakening any animal that might be sleeping inside.

From its perch on one of the wings of the house overlooking the front door, a transparent figure with golden hair watched as the teenager entered the home.


End file.
